Facebook Campus(about.fb.com)
about.fb.com
Facebook Campus
https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/introducing-facebook-campus/
115 comments
Amusingly, it is not launching for Harvard students this time around. The campus list seems very odd and scattershot.
This sounds par for the course for any sort of rollout of technology in education.
Seriously - this is a rehashed version of Facebook when only open to '.edu' email accounts.
I think that's the point. Facebook was so much more fun when it was dumb college student stuff -- and not a forum for every person you know to view and comment on.
> Facebook was so much more fun when...
Wow. It’s been a long time since I thought of Facebook as fun, and at this point it’s been not-fun longer than it’s been fun.
Wow. It’s been a long time since I thought of Facebook as fun, and at this point it’s been not-fun longer than it’s been fun.
Well, yeah. It was college only for only 3 years. For about 2-3 years after that it still skewed younger/techie, but past that has turned into a hellhole of vanity, inspirational posters, fwds from grandma, and politics. So, let's say fun for 5, awful for 12.
It's not really a true reboot unless they get rid of the Newsfeed in this space, and doubtless they won't.
> Today, we are launching Facebook Campus, a college-only space
This seems strangely familiar...
This seems strangely familiar...
It appears they've come full-circle.
I remember the early days, when you could only join with a university account, and the only people you could interact with were others in the same network.
Privacy controls were 'public' by default, but then the only people seeing stuff were fellow students anyway. It was fantastic.
I deleted my Facebook account a few years ago for various reasons, but they had a really great product back then. Somehow I doubt this will capture the charm of v1.
Privacy controls were 'public' by default, but then the only people seeing stuff were fellow students anyway. It was fantastic.
I deleted my Facebook account a few years ago for various reasons, but they had a really great product back then. Somehow I doubt this will capture the charm of v1.
The killer feature for me in Facebook's early days is that people could list the classes they had. This made it easy to message your classmates to get help on an assignment.
I remember when they killed that feature. It was the same time they introduced an app platform.
To replace the feature, there were competing class list apps, each requiring users install it and with its own data, so none of them worked.
I remember thinking whoever made that decision probably didn't understand the feature. But they sure were motivated to build an app ecosystem nobody asked for.
To replace the feature, there were competing class list apps, each requiring users install it and with its own data, so none of them worked.
I remember thinking whoever made that decision probably didn't understand the feature. But they sure were motivated to build an app ecosystem nobody asked for.
The coolest feature for me back then was seeing how you were related to another profile through the friend graph.
It felt like you could click on any person in your school and find a path of friends that connected you.
It felt like you could click on any person in your school and find a path of friends that connected you.
I was studying abroad when Facebook started expanding beyond Harvard. I was in a dorm filled with liberal arts students from across the US.
I remember when about a third of us got "approved" for Facebook, and two thirds were just jealously wondering why their elite private liberal art schools weren't "good enough". I've never seen a clearer case of envy/FOMO.
I remember when about a third of us got "approved" for Facebook, and two thirds were just jealously wondering why their elite private liberal art schools weren't "good enough". I've never seen a clearer case of envy/FOMO.
I artificial dislike artificial scarcity created by startups because they don't have something useful I would pay right away for. Share our site and you will get moved up in the queue and I will say no. It's okay to limit initial users but this is manipulative behaviour.
I wonder if I should make an extension or site to list them all.
I wonder if I should make an extension or site to list them all.
I’d be curious to see such a list, just out of my own morbid curiosity.
> artificial scarcity
Remember, Facebook was running on a PHP backend. Apache spins up an entire _process_ for every HTTP request it receives. Facebook was most likely buying their own hardware. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were running their servers at capacity and dealing with both hardware and software scaling issues.
Edit: FB is also an image heavy website, which at the time was considered a heavy website.
Remember, Facebook was running on a PHP backend. Apache spins up an entire _process_ for every HTTP request it receives. Facebook was most likely buying their own hardware. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were running their servers at capacity and dealing with both hardware and software scaling issues.
Edit: FB is also an image heavy website, which at the time was considered a heavy website.
Surprisingly, Harvard is not on the list of trial colleges.
Did Facebook invent a time machine to go back to 15 years ago?
Is this an April Fools joke?
I stood on a hill and I saw the Old approaching, but it came as the New.
It hobbled up on new crutches which no one had ever seen before
and stank of new smells of decay which no one had ever smelt before.
Bertolt Brecht, Parade of the Old New. (1939)
Bertolt Brecht, Parade of the Old New. (1939)
Jokes aside that this is how FB started, I wonder if this is a reaction to recent claims that FB has a general political slant, and that this might be a way to isolate and segregate people associated with colleges.
> I wonder if this is a reaction to recent claims that FB has a general political slant
I don't want to generalize too much from my own window into Facebook, but it does look like they may be in a feedback loop. As more and more toxic conservative garbage gets reshared, progressives start ditching Facebook. That means the remaining userbase likes that stuff more, so the feed gets tuned to make it more prominent. That turns off more progressives, who drop out. Rinse, lather, repeat.
When I go on Facebook now, it looks like Internet Fox News, and that's despite trying very hard to unfollow the people who reshare that stuff.
Even the left-leaning content on Facebook has gotten more extreme and virulent. It's just a miserable hellhole now of two tribes screaming at each other while the feed AI fans the flames.
I don't want to generalize too much from my own window into Facebook, but it does look like they may be in a feedback loop. As more and more toxic conservative garbage gets reshared, progressives start ditching Facebook. That means the remaining userbase likes that stuff more, so the feed gets tuned to make it more prominent. That turns off more progressives, who drop out. Rinse, lather, repeat.
When I go on Facebook now, it looks like Internet Fox News, and that's despite trying very hard to unfollow the people who reshare that stuff.
Even the left-leaning content on Facebook has gotten more extreme and virulent. It's just a miserable hellhole now of two tribes screaming at each other while the feed AI fans the flames.
But wouldn't that feedback loop work the other way too? That there's someone saying "as more toxic liberal garbage gets reshared, conservatives start ditching Facebook"? Leaving just the people who enjoy screaming at each other?
> "as more toxic liberal garbage gets reshared, conservatives start ditching Facebook"
I think you misspelled "Twitter" :)
I think you misspelled "Twitter" :)
it works both ways, the ironic thing is people on either side of the spectrum believe they're the good ones and the other side that should be removed by facebook, and don't recognize they're part of the problem themselves.
I miss the days when Facebook was about sharing personal connections, stupid and fun stuff, as a shy kid in high school who didn't speak very good English, facebook has helped me made friends and connect with kids in my school as I was more comfortable talking to them online. Hard to imagine that would ever take place with the way Facebook is today, where you log on to scream at other people's political opinions which are different from yours.
I miss the days when Facebook was about sharing personal connections, stupid and fun stuff, as a shy kid in high school who didn't speak very good English, facebook has helped me made friends and connect with kids in my school as I was more comfortable talking to them online. Hard to imagine that would ever take place with the way Facebook is today, where you log on to scream at other people's political opinions which are different from yours.
Made a very similar joke a few weeks ago. I quote, verbatim, myself: "I can't believe this, but I actually miss when Facebook was full of baby pictures and food pictures." Finally just gave in and deleted the profile at the 1st of Sept.
You're assuming that the reward function is giving you the community you want. In reality the reward function is to maximize engagement, which is a proxy for ad revenue. When there's an asymmetry in engagement dynamics then the whole thing drifts. The mass fallacy here is that FB is trying to build communities.
The "engagement" that you're talking about is causing other people to leave, so I don't know how that works in FB's advantage here.
If they really wanted to maximize "engagement" they would actually hide all of the political posts and rage inducing comments and show nothing but cat pictures.
If they really wanted to maximize "engagement" they would actually hide all of the political posts and rage inducing comments and show nothing but cat pictures.
Well, parler is seeing explosive growth for a reason (though parler is more of a twitter clone). Looks like the two tribes just can't handle being on the same social networks together anymore. So we're retreating further into our own echo chambers.
This should end well.
This should end well.
> As more and more toxic conservative garbage gets reshared, progressives start ditching Facebook.
I think this is a function of the friends you have, and what Facebook assumes you like to see based on the pages your friends like (lookalike audience targeting). When I was more active on Facebook, there was a lot of left-wing direct action, and zero Fox News stuff.
Maybe find different friends :)
I think this is a function of the friends you have, and what Facebook assumes you like to see based on the pages your friends like (lookalike audience targeting). When I was more active on Facebook, there was a lot of left-wing direct action, and zero Fox News stuff.
Maybe find different friends :)
Maybe find different friends :)
Has anyone actually ever taken this advice when receiving it in the context of frustrating social media content? I see people throwing this advice around a LOT in these discussions and have always tried to find someone who actually went and did it just because someone on the internet said to.
Curious how well it worked. It sounds about as useful advice as telling someone to “just” get another job after mildly venting about a rough day at the office (or on zoom, given the state of things here recently), which is something we’ve all done just to decompress I would imagine.
Has anyone actually ever taken this advice when receiving it in the context of frustrating social media content? I see people throwing this advice around a LOT in these discussions and have always tried to find someone who actually went and did it just because someone on the internet said to.
Curious how well it worked. It sounds about as useful advice as telling someone to “just” get another job after mildly venting about a rough day at the office (or on zoom, given the state of things here recently), which is something we’ve all done just to decompress I would imagine.
I wonder if pay to remove a post model would work well. Moderation costs money and by pay walling the report button, you can insure that only real cases are reported and take action.
Well there is the "Hide Post" feature, which back when I still even had a FB account I would use with extreme prejudice and can be used free of charge. It was quite helpful before finally making the decision to just leave the platform entirely.
Personal curation is a thing, which I think will solve the case for a non-trivial amount of people, if more were intentional and deliberate about it, but it stops short personally of getting 'better' friends.
Which...I just think is unhelpful advice unless an individual is truly and consistently harming the friendship with their actions and behaviors.
Personal curation is a thing, which I think will solve the case for a non-trivial amount of people, if more were intentional and deliberate about it, but it stops short personally of getting 'better' friends.
Which...I just think is unhelpful advice unless an individual is truly and consistently harming the friendship with their actions and behaviors.
Does FB have no controls like Twitter to manage your feed without unfriending? On Twitter I can mute, "see less from X", block, etc.
It does, actually! You can select to see less from friend, see less of the account that friend shared the post from, or you can 'unfollow' a person entirely, which has the same effect but without formally "unfriending" them, so you see none of their stuff at all, but maintain the network 'connection'.
You can also 'snooze' a person for up to 30 days. Problem I noticed with that was once that 30 days is up, the news feed algorithm SEEMINGLY overcorrects and tends to show you nothing BUT posts from that individual with a higher weight against everything else once their snooze period is over.
As someone who had a number of friends that posted content that was just annoying and boring (not so much incendiary or vitriolic-although they get snoozed too), I used snooze quite a bit. They're great friends, we just have very different tastes and tolerances for what happens on social media. So I used the tools given to me to see less of it, but maintained the friendship.
You can also 'snooze' a person for up to 30 days. Problem I noticed with that was once that 30 days is up, the news feed algorithm SEEMINGLY overcorrects and tends to show you nothing BUT posts from that individual with a higher weight against everything else once their snooze period is over.
As someone who had a number of friends that posted content that was just annoying and boring (not so much incendiary or vitriolic-although they get snoozed too), I used snooze quite a bit. They're great friends, we just have very different tastes and tolerances for what happens on social media. So I used the tools given to me to see less of it, but maintained the friendship.
> When I was more active on Facebook, there was a lot of left-wing direct action, and zero Fox News stuff.
I saw a good mix of both, given I have friends and family that span the political spectrum. In any case, I've suspended my account and given up on FB because it has become just too toxic. Maintaining a diverse circle of FB friends requires refraining from saying or responding to anything even remotely political and that just became too damn tedious for me. I'm off twitter as well (not that I was ever really into that one).
Social Media is a cancer and needs to DIAF.
That reminds me, I have yet another email from a FB recruiter sitting in my inbox, guess I wasn't quite rude enough the last time.
I saw a good mix of both, given I have friends and family that span the political spectrum. In any case, I've suspended my account and given up on FB because it has become just too toxic. Maintaining a diverse circle of FB friends requires refraining from saying or responding to anything even remotely political and that just became too damn tedious for me. I'm off twitter as well (not that I was ever really into that one).
Social Media is a cancer and needs to DIAF.
That reminds me, I have yet another email from a FB recruiter sitting in my inbox, guess I wasn't quite rude enough the last time.
> there was a lot of left-wing direct action
There is a lot of that too, but I also find that fairly toxic. I'm not interested in angry tribal signaling even when it's for my own tribe.
> Maybe find different friends :)
We don't all have the luxury of replacing our family and personal history.
There is a lot of that too, but I also find that fairly toxic. I'm not interested in angry tribal signaling even when it's for my own tribe.
> Maybe find different friends :)
We don't all have the luxury of replacing our family and personal history.
My experience is similar and I'm pretty certain it's because I'm friends with so many people from my hometown who are all mostly conservatives. So I get a lot of conspiracy theories and stuff. I guess I should just start unfriending people. I decided to just quit using FB for a while and see how it goes. So far my anxiety levels are down.
The sad part is that I don't really have real life friends, so seeing what people are up to on Facebook was kind of cool. Until it turned into just a big political echo chamber.
The sad part is that I don't really have real life friends, so seeing what people are up to on Facebook was kind of cool. Until it turned into just a big political echo chamber.
Easier with friends than family. I have found it very dismaying to see the garbage shared by my extended family (both left and right). In this sense FB has definitely not brought the family together.
I think Facebook is bleeding college age people to Instagram (yes I know it is owned by FB), snapchat and the likes and this is serious ad revenue, if allowed to continue all spells the death of a platform. Form me this is a signal of fear or desperation to save the website facebook. Facebook the company is VERY fine and healthy, but I think Facebook the website is in trouble
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I wonder what engagement on Facebook looks like overall. Anecdotally, I haven't seen many in my (older) circle "rage quitting" Facebook but I've seen a lot of people going from using it pretty regularly to using it rarely or to a first approximation of never.
The release of this certainly means that they don't think that they're reaching as many college students as they could, which might be framed desperation, given FB's origins. But I personally think that's an overly pessimistic interpretation. I'm not sure what signs would point to the Facebook platform as a whole approaching "death." Their number of active users (for just Facebook, not Instagram or anything else) have been consistently growing each quarter - even specifically in the US.
It doesn't matter that you are getting more users if those users are old and that's basically what is happening to Facebook. FB these days is just a place where content gets recycled, original content, viral memes and cultural trends happen elsewhere (TT, IG, etc). Just try to list the number of public figures (that young people care about) that use FB as its main channel? Now compare that against TT, IG, etc.
FB managed to buy IG and WhatsApp but they won't always be able to buy their competitor or copy them
FB managed to buy IG and WhatsApp but they won't always be able to buy their competitor or copy them
why does it not matter if they are old?
i could see the argument that they spend less money than other demographics but not that it doesnt matter
i could see the argument that they spend less money than other demographics but not that it doesnt matter
because the youth is the future. Investing in young users is investing long-term. Young users is potential future money, old users is immediate but short lived money stream. I didn't mean to say that it didn't matter but FB is obviously looking at the future
Despite their best efforts to do so, I would argue that most people don't know that FB owns Instagram or WhatsApp. For college-aged people, IG, TikTok, and Snap are what they live in.
These people are never going to come back to Facebook. No one moves to last generation's social network.
The lifespan of any social network is effectively only one generation long. Which is long enough to make a lot of money, but not long enough to build a business that lasts a lifetime.
The lifespan of any social network is effectively only one generation long. Which is long enough to make a lot of money, but not long enough to build a business that lasts a lifetime.
Yo dawg, I heard you like Facebook, so I put a Facebook in your Facebook so you can Facebook while you Facebook.
This would have been really cool maybe 8 years ago. Almost everyone I know at my university uses Facebook only for sharing "life updates" with older relatives who aren't on more trendy social media sites.
This was really cool about 16 years ago, when Facebook launched. Because this is what Facebook used to be.
When Facebook first launched and was only available on certain campuses, it had an intimate and safe feeling. It was used primarily to share experiences with friends. The site was simple and compact. Feeds had a high signal to noise ratio, and it was about personal connection rather than political warfare. Somehow, unless they take on a content policy that bans news/politics/etc, I doubt they can get back to that place from where society is today. Even if the software was exactly the same as it was, we have changed and we have been changed in large part by social media these last 15 years.
A ban on political content won’t make fb what it was before. The toxic political content is a symptom of the problem, not a cause.
The community is the difference. Social bubbles on fb are now huge, and include people with wildly varying ideas for what they want to get out of social media. People naturally segregate different aspects of their social life in their real-world interactions, but that nuance is completely lost on fb.
The community is the difference. Social bubbles on fb are now huge, and include people with wildly varying ideas for what they want to get out of social media. People naturally segregate different aspects of their social life in their real-world interactions, but that nuance is completely lost on fb.
I view one of the largest reasons for this as trying to ensure they keep user retention for younger demographics for live chat, which they've been lagging behind quite a bit compared to e.g. Discord. If Facebook completely loses their young demographic network effects it would be very difficult for them to regain them.
This will be tough as Discord is currently happily enjoying its unlimited growth and no profits phase, and has enough network effects that it's almost impossible to not use it as a young Internet-using male in many countries.
This will be tough as Discord is currently happily enjoying its unlimited growth and no profits phase, and has enough network effects that it's almost impossible to not use it as a young Internet-using male in many countries.
Or if you are an open source developer. Many projects have moved to discord only approach with no public forums.
> If Facebook completely loses their young demographic network effects it would be very difficult for them to regain them.
Facebook has had incredible success at mimicking other companies’ features, and when that fails purchasing major competitors. Discord is still niche, and I suspect their marketing and image will make it hard to break out of ‘gamer’ culture.
Facebook has had incredible success at mimicking other companies’ features, and when that fails purchasing major competitors. Discord is still niche, and I suspect their marketing and image will make it hard to break out of ‘gamer’ culture.
Just as a data point: I'm a member of several Discord communities, none of which are gaming-related.
I've also noticed more recently that people are starting Discord communities around all kinds of non-gaming topics. Very commonly they seem to revolve around a public persona, like a YouTube celebrity, a musician, or a podcast host.
I've also noticed more recently that people are starting Discord communities around all kinds of non-gaming topics. Very commonly they seem to revolve around a public persona, like a YouTube celebrity, a musician, or a podcast host.
I disagree that Discord is niche at this point. They're already worth several billion and it's still growing significantly, with perhaps several hundred million users and very high user-retention, usage, network effects, and proprietary lock-in. I'd still invest in Discord today if I could, in a heartbeat.
Did it ever occur to you that we collectively shape our societies by the choices we make?
From my perspective, the last thing we need is more Facebooks and Twitters.
From my perspective, the last thing we need is more Facebooks and Twitters.
From my perspective, I think we need millions more more Facebooks and Twitters. Maybe billions.
I think the Facebook site will be _very_ different in the next few years than what we're traditionally used to.
The strategy that Facebook has been pivoting towards is in favor of smaller community building, rather than the "mass market square" approach, which is why:
1) Groups have been more prominent and getting quite a bit of promotion
2) Messenger has gotten quite a bit of UX improvements
3) New features like "Rooms," which favor small / intimate video conversations
4) Investments in hardware experiences like Portal, which have been heavily marketed towards family communication thus far (successfully it seems, looking at their last revenue #'s.)
5) Facebook Workplace, which was a smart B2B play anyway, but also aligns with their "micro-community" approach
Zuck messaged this new pivot IIRC around the last US presidential election, but it may have started before that. Therefore I would expect to see more of these types of experiences:
"Facebook Campus" - "Facebook Workplace" - "Facebook [TBD]"
The strategy that Facebook has been pivoting towards is in favor of smaller community building, rather than the "mass market square" approach, which is why:
1) Groups have been more prominent and getting quite a bit of promotion
2) Messenger has gotten quite a bit of UX improvements
3) New features like "Rooms," which favor small / intimate video conversations
4) Investments in hardware experiences like Portal, which have been heavily marketed towards family communication thus far (successfully it seems, looking at their last revenue #'s.)
5) Facebook Workplace, which was a smart B2B play anyway, but also aligns with their "micro-community" approach
Zuck messaged this new pivot IIRC around the last US presidential election, but it may have started before that. Therefore I would expect to see more of these types of experiences:
"Facebook Campus" - "Facebook Workplace" - "Facebook [TBD]"
What's interesting about your comment is how Facebook, as an online community, has lost all context that other online communities had.
Think about people griping about work. You could do that in older online communities, but now that everyone knows everyone on Facebook, a gripe about work is probably going to be seen by your colleagues and potential employers and...
Basically, the concept of an online community that has boundaries away from your IRL (in real life) community is gone. (Or, everyone's mother and kids have Facebook accounts.)
Think about people griping about work. You could do that in older online communities, but now that everyone knows everyone on Facebook, a gripe about work is probably going to be seen by your colleagues and potential employers and...
Basically, the concept of an online community that has boundaries away from your IRL (in real life) community is gone. (Or, everyone's mother and kids have Facebook accounts.)
I remember that fateful day in highschool where the parents volte-faced and joined facebook, and the site was ruined forever. then came the aunts and uncles and grandma and your boss from two jobs ago. eternal september, but the influx didn't ever stop and here we are with billions of users and a mess.
You can't forget about Facebook Marketplace, which is arguably more successful than Groups.
Marketplace is practically killing Cragslist and Kijiji where I am (Toronto area)
My wife started selling stuff on Marketplace for fun and it's basically become a side business for her. It's crazy how successful it's become.
I guess I'll have to try it out. Craigslist has an abysmal user experience and I can't believe they haven't implemented a way to remove duplicate posts and spammy listings on just about every keyword.
My friend buys and flips used exercise equipment on FB Marketplace. Craiglist can be a bit shady as you don't really have name or face to the seller/buyer. On one hand, the anonymity on Craigslist is nice for either party but on the other, it can lead to a dangerous situation. With FB Marketplace, you can quickly glance at their profile and have atleast a name and face to the individual buyer/seller.
I have an unsettling feeling that this will accelerate the cohesion in fringe groups such as QAnon, Boogaloo, Antifa, etc.
In other words, technology that makes our lives easier can be used by people we don't like to make their lives easier also.
Your argument is valid, however, when it comes to social media - I really believe that the world would be a better place without social media. Compared to the downsides of Facebook, the upsides are very little. People used to connect to their loved ones through email and other means before Facebook. It has definitely brought some upsides, but the given what it did in 2016 election (cambridge analytica), how it has sucked in a whole generation of people into constant attention seeking behavior, and ofcourse the emergence of fringe groups which had no real voice before social media. Before facebook, these groups did not have a widespread influence - they would have to recruit people in person.
Your argument is totally valid - we can make knives for cooking and they can be used for killing people as well. I just feel like its more like a poison laden dagger that's masquerading as a cooking knife when it comes to social media.
Your argument is totally valid - we can make knives for cooking and they can be used for killing people as well. I just feel like its more like a poison laden dagger that's masquerading as a cooking knife when it comes to social media.
But we're not talking about "social media" in broad terms, we're talking specifically about Facebook's pivot towards smaller community and group building, per:
> The strategy that Facebook has been pivoting towards is in favor of smaller community building, rather than the "mass market square" approach, which is why:
It's great that people have the ability to form groups with like-minded people, that's how the Internet worked before Facebook, and it sounds like there's some reversion to that.
The fact that it can also be used by "fringe groups", is just another way of saying "I don't want normal people to have nice things because people I don't like also have those nice things", but the world has always worked that way (see: Nazis and the radio). Bad people have existed for forever, and it's up to the laws we make that protect life & liberty to ensure that their impact on the world is limited, not limiting our our communication tools and hope that by 2nd order effect we prevent the people we don't like from having a voice (which is itself pretty dystopian).
> The strategy that Facebook has been pivoting towards is in favor of smaller community building, rather than the "mass market square" approach, which is why:
It's great that people have the ability to form groups with like-minded people, that's how the Internet worked before Facebook, and it sounds like there's some reversion to that.
The fact that it can also be used by "fringe groups", is just another way of saying "I don't want normal people to have nice things because people I don't like also have those nice things", but the world has always worked that way (see: Nazis and the radio). Bad people have existed for forever, and it's up to the laws we make that protect life & liberty to ensure that their impact on the world is limited, not limiting our our communication tools and hope that by 2nd order effect we prevent the people we don't like from having a voice (which is itself pretty dystopian).
Have you spent as much time trying to understand the upsides of social media as the downsides?
How confident are you that your measure of the two is acccurate?
How confident are you that your measure of the two is acccurate?
But who likes this stuff? Who really wants to use it? I don't know anyone especially the younger crowd as I have teenagers, that want anything to do with facebook
I don't know about those specific features, but I'm always surprised how people make assumptions about a global service with over two billion users based on an extremely local sample of anecdotes.
"I don't think anybody in the world buys fish because I live in Montana and my kids hate it"
"I don't think anybody in the world buys fish because I live in Montana and my kids hate it"
You assume I assume. This is well documented and highly reported on.
"According to a recent study by Edison Research, Facebook is hemorrhaging users in the US, losing about 15 million people since 2017. The largest drop is among teen users and millennials."
"As of February 2019, 62% of 12-34 year olds in the US log into Facebook. This is down from 79% in 2017, and represents about 11 million of of the overall decrease"
"Senior citizens in the US are the fastest growing group of Facebook users, nearly doubling in numbers between 2012 and 2019, a vast shift from the platform’s beginnings as a service for college students."
Hearing younger folks say the same thing first hand only validates the research and the numerous articles. All of the statistical data can be skewed and I imagine any small study (pew, edison) is going to have different results. So where does that leave me? We'll when you have backyard full of teenagers that are all well off with mobile devices and all of them tell you facebook is for boomers and talking to grandma, that tends to hold a little weight coupled with some of the statistical data. Interestingly enough we can find data that makes the opposite claim so what does one do when presented with competing data? They use the data they have which in this case is directly from a reputable demographic/source.
"According to a recent study by Edison Research, Facebook is hemorrhaging users in the US, losing about 15 million people since 2017. The largest drop is among teen users and millennials."
"As of February 2019, 62% of 12-34 year olds in the US log into Facebook. This is down from 79% in 2017, and represents about 11 million of of the overall decrease"
"Senior citizens in the US are the fastest growing group of Facebook users, nearly doubling in numbers between 2012 and 2019, a vast shift from the platform’s beginnings as a service for college students."
Hearing younger folks say the same thing first hand only validates the research and the numerous articles. All of the statistical data can be skewed and I imagine any small study (pew, edison) is going to have different results. So where does that leave me? We'll when you have backyard full of teenagers that are all well off with mobile devices and all of them tell you facebook is for boomers and talking to grandma, that tends to hold a little weight coupled with some of the statistical data. Interestingly enough we can find data that makes the opposite claim so what does one do when presented with competing data? They use the data they have which in this case is directly from a reputable demographic/source.
I would use a social network that only my actual friends were on. When I was in college I would have found a college-only social media site useful and enjoyable. The biggest problem with most social media is they are too impersonal due to having too many disparate connections (eg my aunt, a former boss, my best friend, a former acquaintance from high school) and they shove “influencers” and other popular content down your throat.
I can imagine that Facebook will be able to create a decent platform for young people if they only have to worry about adding features/promoting content that young people like.
I can imagine that Facebook will be able to create a decent platform for young people if they only have to worry about adding features/promoting content that young people like.
snapchat, instagram, tiktok, those didn't exist when facebook.com started, otherwise I don't think they'd have had much success
I use and like a lot of this stuff.
I use Messenger with a group of friends because it seems to be a pretty reliable way of group texting between iOS and Android (text messages were coming in out of order) and we all have Facebook accounts.
We all use Facebook to plan group events. Things like birthday parties, vacations, and where we're all going to stay for weddings.
I'm in a few local Facebook groups for things like trail running and hiking. They're great for getting information about current conditions.
Facebook Marketplace has been better than Craigslist or Offerup since it's a little more likely to be a real person (or at least it's a little easier to tell if they are based on their profile.)
It' also nice that I don't need to have a dozen different accounts to do all this stuff.
I'm not a teenager, but all the teenagers I know use Instagram.
I use Messenger with a group of friends because it seems to be a pretty reliable way of group texting between iOS and Android (text messages were coming in out of order) and we all have Facebook accounts.
We all use Facebook to plan group events. Things like birthday parties, vacations, and where we're all going to stay for weddings.
I'm in a few local Facebook groups for things like trail running and hiking. They're great for getting information about current conditions.
Facebook Marketplace has been better than Craigslist or Offerup since it's a little more likely to be a real person (or at least it's a little easier to tell if they are based on their profile.)
It' also nice that I don't need to have a dozen different accounts to do all this stuff.
I'm not a teenager, but all the teenagers I know use Instagram.
I have just stopped being a teenager, but my interest in memes is actually surprisingly well covered by facebook - there are groups for all kinds of niches.
It's sort of like Reddit, but a little less crappy.
That said I don't really use it because I have a very bad memory of the company and the site, so the hurdle to ever opening it up is quite high.
It's sort of like Reddit, but a little less crappy.
That said I don't really use it because I have a very bad memory of the company and the site, so the hurdle to ever opening it up is quite high.
> Groups have been more prominent and getting quite a bit of promotion
But they made them worse with the new look. You can‘t see the number of new posts anymore so if you are in slow moving groups you have to click on them to check for new posts. So instead of checking FB several times a day to see if there is a significant count of new posts in one of my groups I switched to checking once a day and just looking into my favourite groups.
But they made them worse with the new look. You can‘t see the number of new posts anymore so if you are in slow moving groups you have to click on them to check for new posts. So instead of checking FB several times a day to see if there is a significant count of new posts in one of my groups I switched to checking once a day and just looking into my favourite groups.
Facebook Dystopia - An online meeting place for your side, after the collective national identity is no longer viable.
Amongst other things, I think they're trying to keep from being unbundled. Right now they're vulnerable to someone else doing what they did to Myspace et. al., having college students peeled off into some other more targeted service.
Any idea if the schools are getting directly or indirectly paid to be a part of this?
Everything old is new again.
I guess Facebook is coming for Reddit.
haha full circle
Aside from the "Facebook just launched Facebook" side of this, I think it's really interesting that they're launching this on Facebook instead of acquiring/building a new network. It seems like social networks roll on cycles, you don't want to use your older sibling's social network. Their acquisitions also hint that they agree. My guess is that there is some concern internally about owning another major social network, combined with dropping numbers of young people coming on to Facebook.
Speculating: maybe they want to pipeline former students to their main product after they graduate.
Maybe they decided instead of risk another social media site going through the same lifecycle as Facebook did and fragmenting market share, they could keep it all under one roof. I suppose it could also be an attempt to keep the engineering simpler, too.
Hardly an expert, though.
Maybe they decided instead of risk another social media site going through the same lifecycle as Facebook did and fragmenting market share, they could keep it all under one roof. I suppose it could also be an attempt to keep the engineering simpler, too.
Hardly an expert, though.
My university is a joke, and therefore I am sure they will adopt this soon without thinking to any of the consequences.
Basically Facebook want to fully substitute email within colleges.
What could go wrong?
This is not for users, it is more for university admins.
Basically Facebook want to fully substitute email within colleges.
What could go wrong?
This is not for users, it is more for university admins.
Might be unrelated, but when I visit this page in a private browsing session on iOS 14 and play the video I get a modal saying Facebook would like to use cookies and website data, and if you allow they can track me. If I don't allow, the video stops playing. If I do nothing, the video plays in the background.
https://ibb.co/Bc2t2mK
https://ibb.co/Bc2t2mK
They want to make Facebook cool again?
If FB doesn't have a play on education yet, they might want to capitalise on remote classes through video/transcripts. Possibly have a piazza equivalent built in and make it more accessible to schools.
"Hello fellow kids"
The Poochie of social networks.
So cost of entry is $20k and up per year? In other news, Deans of admission might be silently thanking Zuck for this feature!
Actually Mindblown. Next thing you know Google is going to release "Google Search, find what you're looking for on the internet!"
You know. A product focused only on search and not on advertising, where the goal was really to help people find what they're looking for - that might be a revolutionary product. And Google would be in a great position to launch it...
That name sounds like a place where you can get a degree in user tracking. I'm almost disappointed.
Did they just...go back to 2006?
glad to see my alma mater NOT in the list.
Keeping college separate from the world at large is a good idea. Back when Facebook was exclusive to people with university '.edu' email accounts there was a massive shitstorm when everything got opened up to the general public. All of the sudden pictures of students drinking and doing drugs were visible to potential employers, non-students and the 'real world'. It seems that this new Facebook for universities won't have the same problem as it's not going to be merged back with regular FB.
The circle of life has rotated - we're now in a position where "Facebook but for Facebook" is an innovation. ;)
Facebook is AOL circa 1997. When it seemed that they'd be a dominate player forever... Fast forward a few years and were are almost non-existent. A few more and they were gone all together.
Never forget that the internet is awash in dead companies and sites that were extremely popular and powerful, until they werent.
Facebook is a giant, but its dominance in the USA and the EU is likely short lived.
Never forget that the internet is awash in dead companies and sites that were extremely popular and powerful, until they werent.
Facebook is a giant, but its dominance in the USA and the EU is likely short lived.
And the same comment was made about Facebook practically a decade ago, pointing to MySpace and Friendster. Yet DAU, MAU, and engagement continue to grow. Some of this, perhaps, is due to Facebook's keen awareness of its own mortality and the several times that they had to navigate out of near existential crises. Just look on the backside of the logo out front of their HQ. Memento mori.
Yeah but those are not my comments, and it's not today.
It is not competition that will kill Facebook, its the change in people's behavior. Very different from the competitive view you take.
The death of Facebook will be from both in how people interact with each other and tech. Whether its a fundamental shift in comm(mobile phones) or a leap in tech like serverless / peer to peer that removes the need for a central service. Eventually, Facebook will not exist anywhere near its current form.
Remember, FB not a service like Google that serves the user. You dont need them to do anything but connect to other people. If you dont need to use FB, you wont. For now, its easier and working very well at scale. But that's temporary. Maybe 10 years. Maybe longer... One day it too will be a memory, owned and operated by a PE firm that specializes in brands.
It is not competition that will kill Facebook, its the change in people's behavior. Very different from the competitive view you take.
The death of Facebook will be from both in how people interact with each other and tech. Whether its a fundamental shift in comm(mobile phones) or a leap in tech like serverless / peer to peer that removes the need for a central service. Eventually, Facebook will not exist anywhere near its current form.
Remember, FB not a service like Google that serves the user. You dont need them to do anything but connect to other people. If you dont need to use FB, you wont. For now, its easier and working very well at scale. But that's temporary. Maybe 10 years. Maybe longer... One day it too will be a memory, owned and operated by a PE firm that specializes in brands.
A mobile version of messenger.com would be nice also.
On budget phones(think 8GBs) web apps are the best solution but yet there is only a mobile version of Facebook.com.
On budget phones(think 8GBs) web apps are the best solution but yet there is only a mobile version of Facebook.com.
Announcing:
Microsoft Operating System
Amazon Online Bookstore
Google Internet Search
Microsoft Operating System
Amazon Online Bookstore
Google Internet Search
Tomorrow we're rebranding as "TheFacebook" and will only be available to Harvard students.